Changing Layout into Theme

I created a layout for our literary magazine, the Ivory Tower, and we wanted to have a blog on it. I’ve tried to get a grasp on how to work with WordPress to make the layout I created into a theme, but I’m having a lot of trouble with the PHP. I don’t know what to change and what not to change and I’m getting really frustrated.

So I’m looking for a couple of options. If someone would be willing to take my files (I already have them separated into header, footer, style.css, and index) and make it into a theme, that would be amazing. I would love you forever. I can’t afford to pay anyone though, because it’s a non-profit magazine and we’re lucky just to get the money to pay for the website.

If someone knows a tutorial which will explain how to make a functions page and what PHP to insert where, that would be great too! I’ve only found ones that guide you through building a layout and putting in the PHP, but that’s not really what I’m looking for. Functions.php seems to be the real bane of my existence.

If anyone has any other helpful advice, I’ll take that too. I just have been trying to get this for awhile and it’s becoming seriously not fun. I need to get this up before Monday next week, so I’m running out of time to play around with the code. The website, which has the layout I would be using, is https://ivorytowermag.com